STUDENT EDGE: Life-Changing Learning

When Elizabeth Budd ’09 comes across an item begging to be recycled, she picks it up and carries it home. It’s part—albeit a small part—of the personal role she says is important in making the planet just a little less toxic.

“There are things we can do to improve [the environment] now,” the dance and environmental justice major points out. To those who would call saving a yogurt cup from the local landfill less than profound, she responds, “I think we have an opportunity to change, and if you think negatively all the time you can’t get anything done.”

A part-time environmental organizer with Nuestras Raices, a community-development group in neighboring Holyoke, Budd has been actively involved in efforts to counter the city’s proposed waste-transfer station that would, Budd relates, result in up to 225 diesel trucks delivering 750 tons of waste a day.

In an impoverished city with one of the highest asthma rates in Massachusetts, a respiratory ailment that has been linked to diesel pollutants, that’s not the kind of economic development that makes sense, she explains.

“We need healthy, high-quality development that doesn’t hurt people’s health,” says Budd, a Holyoke resident and one of the few MHC students who live off campus. Holyoke needs “small businesses, a bank … clothing stores, a place like Barnes and Noble. There’s no grocery store” in the city center, she adds.

Speaking out about local issues and making herself vulnerable to criticism has been life changing, Budd says. Introduced to Nuestras Raices through Visiting Assistant Professor of Earth and Environment Giovanna Di Chiro and the college’s Community-Based Learning Program, Budd says the work also gives her a chance to practice her Spanish, as nearly half of Holyoke residents are Hispanic.

Using art as a form of empowerment also interests Budd, who has entered a video, Protecting our Environment Through Art in Action, in a contest sponsored by the Student Conservation Alliance. If she wins, Budd will use the prize money to create an arts project in Holyoke.

“I have discovered that if you give people a place to discuss these issues, they will start taking part. It’s a learning process for everybody.”—M.H.B.

Photo by Andrea Burns

Learn More:

To see Budd’s video, go to youtube.com and search for “Protecting Our Environment Through Art in Action.” MHC’s environmental efforts are outlined at www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/es/index.shtml.